Red Light Spells Danger for Manchester City

Liverpool have created lots of chances in the penalty box danger zone in the Premier League this season. Manchester City have more but who has been better?

Curtis Jones celebrate’s converting Liverpool’s second highest value danger zone shot of the season. Bound to be what he was thinking at the time.

Last week, we dug into Liverpool’s defending of their danger zone, the central section of the penalty area covered by the width of the six-yard box. It is now time to look at the other end of the pitch.

This will be more fun. At the back, you have the statistics with a list of players who were unlikely to score and are unlikely to cross your mind until the Reds face their team again. Jacob Greaves! Dean Huijsen! Joshua Zirkzee!

Going forward, there’s bigger sample sizes by player and creative combinations to consider. The starting point for the investigation is a recent post by CIES Football Observatory, which contained the danger zone data.

For shots conceded, Liverpool lead the Premier League so far this season. In attack, while the Reds are higher in the standings for Europe’s big five leagues than they were for defence, they are below Manchester City (obviously) and Tottenham (sorry, what?) in England.

With all due disrespect to Spurs, Arne Slot will only be concerned about their attack twice a year. A comparison between his side and City will be of far greater interest.

As will a breakdown of which Liverpool players have contributed directly to the most shots from within the danger zone. Least spoiling spoiler alert of all time: Mohamed Salah is top. The pro-rata standings throw up a few interesting quirks though.